Philly Future

October 31, 2005

So there I am biking down Chestnut St back to Center City. I'm heading down a hill and approaching a stop light. I hit the breaks. I hear something snap. The left brake feels all loose. The cable snapped! But the right one was still there intact and I hit it harder and it held.

I had a bit of a panic for a sec there, thinking I'd go hurtling into traffic, but all is well.

I headed straight for my trusty bike shop, Frankenstein Bike Worx [1529 Spruce St]. The Doc hooked me up with a new cable for $4.28 and showed me how to put it on myself when I got home. About five minutes of fiddling and whammo, I got me a better than when I bought it front break. I tightened it a bit.

If you're need some bike work done, I wholeheartedly endorse Frankenstein Bike Worx. I've been going there for everything I've ever needed since getting my bike here about 1.5 years ago. A new bike seat, new tires, new wheels, bike lock... You name it, he's got it in there. It may be buried under layers of other bike guts, but he's got it. If he doesn't have it, you don't need it. So stop asking for it and leave him alone. If you have a Huffy, don't bother going there, he'll laugh you out of the store, or maybe he'll get you to buy a real bike.

Missing SEPTA? Its smells, its sights, its sounds? Well, in the few months that I've been riding SEPTA, I've taken a good amount of photos on the trains, at the stations, of the trains. So, here are some links to photos of SEPTA courtesy of me.

I normally don't read The Early Word, but I clicked over to this post acting as a rant board for the SEPTA - TWU strike.

About what I expected. Ad hominem attacks on people others don't know and complaining. But that's what this sounding board is for, right Peter?

I wonder how many people have taken the time to go through and understand just a little bit of what the TWU is asking for. A sliding scale of healthcare payment like anon/10.24am said. Those at the bottom of the payscale are paying the same amount as those at the top. People are angry that the TWU wants a raise. Everyone should ge raises. The cost of living goes up every single day, every single week, every single month, every single year. Salaries and wages should increase accordingly. If not, we are all just plunging towards the poverty line or worse, further below it. The TWU members do not all get free healthcare as many are claiming. The newbies [those with under three years of service] have to pay 100% of their dental and a nice chunk of normal medical costs from what I read. They are not paid for the first few days of a sickness. In the few salaried jobs I've had, I have always been paid for sick days, granted, they do run out at some point, but I've had them. We all get sick.

SEPTA's clogging of their office with managers whose ratio to workers is reported to be 1:1 is rediculous.

I am fortunate enough to be healthy enough and have enough money to have a bike and be able to bike to work right now. It still sucks. But it pales in comparison to what so many other SEPTA riders have to go through right now as it gets colder and colder.

I've been living in Philly for under 1.5 years and I love it here. SEPTA has been pretty good to me. It's no dreamride, but when is any public transit a joyride? I grew up in the 'burbs of NYC and worked there for five years. I went to school in DC and took the Metro for all three. Both of those systems have their problems, just as SEPTA does. But I know a little more about this situation since I've been more and more involved in the local politics here.

I hate seeing strikes. It means that there was a breakdown in a dialogue. I'm frustrated at both sides here. From what I hear, this is what happens every year or few years. They let contracts expire instead of really hashing it out in between the quick fix patches here and there just prolonging the inevitable.

It's not like the TWU members want to strike. Who the hell would want to say goodbye to a paycheck? It must really be fucked up to do that. I know that I'm in no position to start picketing my workplace. It sucks that many members of the union did not want to strike, but the majority did, so, they are in turn screwed when they didn't want to be, but I think that's a part of joining an organization like a union. In the comments, one wife of a TWU mechanic said that there is no strike fund. The TWU workers are not making money right now. Sure, the union bosses [who are also fat and rich just like the SEPTA honchos] will probably hand out some money here and there to try to keep up morale and keep the strike going, but for how long.

I hope that both sides can come to an agreement. I'm not going to scream and yell, yet. I am fortunate to be able to hold back those yells and screams and not be effected too bad by this strike. But what do I say to a person I pass on the street who is walking sixty blocks to go to the hospital for cancer treatment or see a group of high schoolers walking thirty blocks to get their education? What do the strikers say to them? What does management say to them? Well, I honestly don't think they really give a shit.

In 1998, it went for forty days. Forty days from now will be the second week of December. Gas heating prices are said to be the highest they've ever been, LIHEAP is gutted and SEPTA fares could increase on top of the $412M Rendell diverted to SEPTA to keep it running for the next two years. This is gonna get ugly. Philly's self-deprecating and just plain hating will shine through in the coming days and weeks. I may get in on it soon too. But not yet.

The top story on the front page of Philly.com is, of course, the SEPTA strike. It is also an AP Wire story and not by a writer from the Inky or DN. Maybe this is the first sign of the effects of the 100 buyouts between the two Knight Ridder papers?

But there are stories by writers from the Inky and the DN below the top story.

The ride was cold and the traffic on Walnut St pretty clogged. Didn't see too many more people on bikes or walking than normal though.

The SEPTA - TWU talks are going to go down to the wire and is going to be a nail-biter for about 400,000 of us who depend on it on a daily basis as a primary means of transportation. The Inky has this story recounting everything up to this point.

October 29, 2005

This time around, we got ourselves a Toyota Corolla. It got all the way to CT [~250 mi] on half a tank of gas, quite nice. We got a bit of a late start, but we made good time with me behind the wheel. I was beat when we finally got there and immediately zonked out about five minutes afterwards.

Today was the 61st Anniversary party of Lady's grandparents'. It was pretty funny, they all know me and know that I take photos. Almost nobody brought a camera with them fully relying on me bringing mine and taking photos. Which I did and did. After that we all went to Lady's aunt's villa by the lake down the road. The photo above is a shot of across the lake with the 80-200 f/2.8 at 80mm. I was thinking of going back to the car and getting the 18-70 for a nicer wide shot, but it was cold outside and I didn't feel like fiddling with lenses anymore in the cold.

Tomorrow afternoon we head back to Philadelphia and hopefully, the gas in Cherry Hill will still be at $2.29 or so.